INFORMATION OF GENERAL INTERESTS ON ENTERPRISE TAXES

Tax Organizations at and below Provincial Level

Due to the need of the revenue sharing system, the tax organizations at and below the provincial level are divided into offices of SAT and local tax bureau.

SAT conducts a vertical leadership over the offices of SAT with respect to organization, size, personnel, budgets, and assists the local governments in a form of dual leadership over the local tax bureau.

a) The offices of SAT include all offices of SAT in jurisdictions at county level, municipal level and provincial level, and tax stations (or branches) as well. Tax stations (or branches) are representative offices of the county offices and set up on the basis of economic districts, administrative districts or sector.

The offices of SAT at provincial level are departmental-level administrative organizations directly reporting to the Headquarters of SAT. They are the functional organs being in charge of the revenue work within their own jurisdictions. They are also responsible for carrying out the relevant tax laws, regulations and rules of the State by working put the concrete implementing measures in combination with local practical condition. The Directors and Deputy Directors are appointed by the Headquarters. The number of divisions within one office of SAT at provincial level is limited to 12, such as General Office, Turnover Tax Division, Income Tax Division, Planning and Financial Division, Collection and Administration Division, Personnel Division, Supervisory Division, and Policy and Legislative Division. In addition, every office of SAT at provincial level has set up a Tax Investigation Bureau, and may establish Collection Bureau, Foreign Investment Tax Bureau, and/or Import and Export Tax Administration Bureau.

b) Local tax bureaus include Local Tax Bureaus of Governments at provincial level, Local Tax Bureaus of Governments at municipal level, Local Tax Bureaus at county level, and Tax Stations (or Branches). The local tax bureaus at and below provincial level are under the dual leadership of both the local people's governments at the same-level and the local tax bureaus at higher level with the vertical leadership of the higher local tax bureau as the predominant one, i.e., everything concerning the organization, staff management, size and expenditure budget of local tax bureaus at municipal and county level is subject to the vertical leadership of the provincial local tax bureaus thereof.

The local tax bureaus at provincial level are functional departments of People's Governments at provincial level in charge of the local taxation work within their own jurisdictions. They are normally departmental-level administrative organs under dual leadership of local governments and Headquarters of SAT with the former as the predominant one. Within each local tax bureau at provincial level there are divisions such as General Office, Turnover Tax Division, Income Tax Division, Planning and Financial Division, Administration and Collection Division, Personnel Division, Supervisory Division, Policy and Legislative Division, and Foreign Investment Taxation Division.

The leadership of SAT over the local tax bureau at provincial level is reflected in the aspects of tax policy and business guidelines and coordination, the supervision in the implementation by the local authorities of the State unified tax rules and policies, and the coordination in the exchange of experiences. The directors of local tax bureau at provincial level are appointed or removed by the local government after consultation with SAT. By the beginning of 1999, there are totally in China 992,000 tax staff serving in 61 tax offices (or bureau) at provincial level, 30 municipal tax offices (or bureau) at vice-provincial level, 664 tax offices (or bureau) at municipal level, 4176 tax offices at county level and more than 55,466 tax stations (or branches). Out of the total staff,575,000 are working for the SAT,416,000 for Local tax bureau and the tax collectors account for over 70%.

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